Album review: ‘Traumatismo Kraneoencefalico’ by Goa and Yung Beef

I’m a sucker for Latin music, so when I found out that a new album would be released, I was excited to listen to it. I think Spanish sounds beautiful when sung well. Spanish artists Yung Beef and Goa collaborated to create the Spanish pop and rap album “Traumatismo Kraneoencefalico,” which was released on Dec. 14, 2018. The album’s title translates to “traumatic brain injury” in English, and features eight songs all sung in Spanish.

I have never really been a fan of Yung Beef because of his tendency to leave syllables off of his words while rapping or singing. It gave me the impression that he has not reached his full potential as an artist, and it occurred pretty frequently in his previous tracks. Compared to other artists, such as Goa, he didn’t stand out as much, and few of his previous projects demonstrated any change or improvements he has made over time.

I didn’t know who Goa was until I saw his name next to Yung Beef’s, but I’m glad I know who he is now.

Goa and Yung Beef also worked with other artists who helped with production and vocals.

However, I was still willing to give this album a chance, considering how fun I find the genre his music is focused in.

The first song “Castlevania,” was produced by artist DP Beats. It had a few nice-sounding lyrics, but some of the words were not fully pronounced and therefore hard to understand. This occurs frequently in the music genre, but it is also specific to certain artists. Perhaps some of the slang or abbreviations he used would have made more sense to a native Spanish speaker.

However, as a non-native speaker, that aspect of the music made it difficult for me to grow attached to the music. The instrumental towards the end of the song also sounded similar to what other artists’ have produced. I wasn’t a fan of the lyrics in general, since their theme of an unhealthy relationship as well as coming close to being heartbroken is something I have heard many times before, and it has gotten old rather quickly.

“Red Hot Chili Peppers,” produced by Pi’erre Bourne and Marvin Cruz, was one of the songs I enjoyed more because Goa finally took over as the leading vocalist. I appreciated how Goa sang — he was clear and easy to understand. I found the instrumentals, which consisted of drums and another instrument, or maybe two, (I wasn’t entirely sure of what it or they could have been) catchy, which in turn caught my attention in a positive manner. I particularly liked how the drums in this song were arranged with the lyrics.

I liked the song “Rainman” immediately because of its intro. The somewhat quiet guitar strums with the steady, beating drum sounds was, in my book, perfect. The song’s instrumentals were my favorite out of all eight I listened to. I liked how the lyrics sounded, and I appreciated Goa having the entire song to himself. Because of this, this song ended up being my personal favorite out of the album’s eight.

I thought that this album was just alright. Some songs did not meet my expectations, though I had fun listening to several. I would personally recommend the several songs I liked, but not the entire album. I think the album would have sounded a lot better if more effort was put toward writing lyrics with substance and fully singing words. The instrumentals that I enjoyed listening to were another saving point of the album along with other talented featured artists. If you like to listen to pop and rap, then you might like this album.

I hope Yung Beef ups his game as a singer — he will really need to if he wants more listeners with my preferences to genuinely appreciate the music he makes.

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